Freelancers' Questions: Can a client not pay if it dislikes my work?

Freelancer’s
Question: My fashion design client who frequently emailed during
my project for them with numerous design iterations is now refusing to pay me,
even though the project is complete.

This client, who I don’t have a written contract
with and who I didn’t make pay a deposit, admits he doesn’t understand the
technical specification I’ve produced; nor apparently does his commercial
partner. From my 10 years as a freelance designer, I’m confident that the
partner (a factory essentially) is familiar with the spec. I also offered to
redo the whole spec at my cost in order to finish the project in a different
way, but the client maintains he still wouldn’t pay. Shall I go straight to the
small claims court?

Expert’s
Answer: It does look like the debtor is looking for excuses, but the crucial
evidence will be whether firstly the specification is good enough based on
industry standards, and secondly whether the design meets the reasonable
expectations of the buyer. It will be very important to identify from the email
documents what precisely was agreed. It will then be necessary to get an expert
to say whether your specification was good enough for the buyer to replicate
the design by manufacturing the items, and secondly whether the design met the
reasonable expectations of the buyer.

If you issued a claim in the County
Court Money Claims Centre, it will be allocated to the small claims track
but only if it is defended, and if the claim (together with any interest
claimed) is below £10,000. Please note; expert evidence is not
permitted on the small claims track without the court’s approval, and if
approved will except in exceptional circumstances be limited to the submission
of a written report. The court will prefer a jointly instructed expert.

I would therefore suggest that you write now to the
buyer suggesting that you try to avoid costly court proceedings by referring
the matter jointly to an expert for determination, with an agreement to both
abide by any decision of the expert. If the buyer refuses, you can draw that to
the attention of the court when asking for permission to use expert evidence.